IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v46y2023i2p437-452.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cementing regional integration or building walls? Competition, cartels and regional integration in the cement industry in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Roberts
  • Witness Simbanegavi
  • Thando Vilakazi

Abstract

The cement industry requires large‐scale energy and capital‐intensive plants, ideally located close to limestone deposits. These characteristics mean that there are substantial gains which can be realised from regional trade and competition in this inherently oligopolistic industry. This article analyses competition and trade in cement in Southern and East Africa. It considers how competition and coordination, new entry and competition enforcement have affected cross‐border trade and domestic prices in the countries of the East African Community and Southern African Development Community. We find that gains from trade through increased competition did not occur without there also being new entry to disrupt the incumbent firms which operated across the region. Entry at scale to supply regional markets led to substantial reductions in prices from the competition, in line with international studies of the effect of the cement cartels. The article points to the importance of prioritising competition enforcement as part of regional integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Roberts & Witness Simbanegavi & Thando Vilakazi, 2023. "Cementing regional integration or building walls? Competition, cartels and regional integration in the cement industry in Africa," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 437-452, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:46:y:2023:i:2:p:437-452
    DOI: 10.1111/twec.13360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.13360
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/twec.13360?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brander, James & Krugman, Paul, 1983. "A 'reciprocal dumping' model of international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3-4), pages 313-321, November.
    2. Henrekson, Magnus & Torstensson, Johan & Torstensson, Rasha, 1997. "Growth effects of European integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1537-1557, August.
    3. Kai Hüschelrath & Kathrin Müller & Tobias Veith, 2013. "Concrete Shoes For Competition: The Effect Of The German Cement Cartel On Market Price," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 97-123.
    4. Marhsall, Robert C. & Marx, Leslie M., 2014. "The Economics of Collusion: Cartels and Bidding Rings," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262525941, December.
    5. Willem H. Boshoff & Rossouw van Jaarsveld, 2019. "Recurrent Collusion: Cartel Episodes and Overcharges in the South African Cement Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(2), pages 353-380, March.
    6. Thando Vilakazi & Simon Roberts, 2019. "Cartels as ‘fraud’? Insights from collusion in southern and East Africa in the fertiliser and cement industries," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(161), pages 369-386, July.
    7. Lars-Hendrik Röller & Frode Steen, 2006. "On the Workings of a Cartel: Evidence from the Norwegian Cement Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 321-338, March.
    8. Junior Khumalo & Jeffrey Mashiane & Simon Roberts, 2014. "Harm And Overcharge In The South African Precast Concrete Products Cartel," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 621-646.
    9. Fink, Nikolaus & Frübing, Stefan, 2015. "Legal and illegal cartels in the European cement industry," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-066, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Margaret C. Levenstein & Valerie Y. Suslow, 2016. "Price Fixing Hits Home: An Empirical Study of US Price-Fixing Conspiracies," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 48(4), pages 361-379, June.
    11. Carsten J. Crede, 2019. "A Structural Break Cartel Screen for Dating and Detecting Collusion," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(3), pages 543-574, May.
    12. Bernard Hoekman & Dominique Njinkeu, 2017. "Integrating Africa: Some Trade Policy Research Priorities and Challenges†," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(suppl_2), pages 12-39.
    13. Bernard Hoekman & Dominique Njinkeu, 2017. "Integrating Africa: Some Trade Policy Research Priorities and Challenges," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/43, European University Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Clark & Ignatius Horstmann & Jean-François Houde, 2021. "Hub and Spoke Cartels: Theory and Evidence from the Grocery Industry," NBER Working Papers 29253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alberto Salvo, 2010. "Trade flows in a spatial oligopoly: gravity fits well, but what does it explain?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(1), pages 63-96, February.
    3. Johnson, Michael E. & Farris, Jarrad & Morgan, Stephen & Bloem, Jeffrey R. & Ajewole, Kayode & Beckman, Jayson, 2022. "Africa's Agricultural Trade: Recent Trends Leading up to the African Continental Free Trade Area," USDA Miscellaneous 333528, United States Department of Agriculture.
    4. Mitsuru Igami & Takuo Sugaya, 2022. "Measuring the Incentive to Collude: The Vitamin Cartels, 1990–99 [“Extremal Equilibria of Oligopolistic Supergames”]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(3), pages 1460-1494.
    5. H. Peter Boswijk & Maurice J. G. Bun & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2019. "Cartel dating," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 26-42, January.
    6. Fabien Candau & Geoffroy Guepie & Reine Kouakou, 2018. "In Gravity no Veritas: Dubious Trade Elasticiy and Weak Effects of Regional Trade Agreements in Africa," Working Papers hal-02625930, HAL.
    7. Julie SCHLICK & Geoffroy GUEPIE, 2019. "Gains and Losses in a Trade Bloc: The Case of the East African Community," Working Papers 2019-2020_2, CATT - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, revised Dec 2019.
    8. Fabien Candau & Geoffroy Guepie & Julie Schlick, 2019. "Moving to autarky, trade creation and home market effect: an exhaustive analysis of regional trade agreements in Africa," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(30), pages 3293-3309, June.
    9. John Asker & Allan Collard-Wexler & Jan De Loecker, 2017. "Market Power, Production (Mis)Allocation and OPEC," NBER Working Papers 23801, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Matthias Hunold & Kai Hüschelrath & Ulrich Laitenberger & Johannes Muthers, 2020. "Competition, Collusion, and Spatial Sales Patterns: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 737-779, December.
    11. Fink, Nikolaus & Frübing, Stefan, 2015. "Legal and illegal cartels in the European cement industry," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-066, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Clark, Robert & Fabiilli, Christopher & Lasio, Laura, 2022. "Collusion in the US generic drug industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Geoffroy Guepie & Julie Schlick, 2019. "Gains and Losses in a Trade Bloc: The Case of the East African Community," Working papers of CATT hal-02625875, HAL.
    14. Gnutzmann-Mkrtchyan, Arevik & Hoffstadt, Martin, 2020. "Use and Abuse of Antidumping by Global Cartels," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-677, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    15. Geoffroy Guepie & Julie Schlick, 2019. "Gains and Losses in a Trade Bloc: The Case of the East African Community," Working Papers hal-02625875, HAL.
    16. Tanaka, Kiyoyasu & Fukunishi, Takahiro, 2022. "Rules of origin and exports in developing economies: The case of garment products," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Stender, Frederik & Vogel, Tim, 2021. "Murky trade waters: Regional tariff commitments and non-tariff measures in Africa," IDOS Discussion Papers 13/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    18. George Deltas & Alberto Salvo & Helder Vasconcelos, 2012. "Social-Welfare-Enhancing Collusion and Trade," Chapters, in: Joseph E. Harrington Jr & Yannis Katsoulacos (ed.), Recent Advances in the Analysis of Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Ponce Carlos J. & Roldán Flavia, 2017. "Cartels as Small World Networks: Evidence from Graphite Electrode Cartel," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 27-61, March.
    20. van den Berg, Anita & Bos, Iwan, 2017. "Collusion in a price-quantity oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 159-185.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:46:y:2023:i:2:p:437-452. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.